Hamas gives fighters total freedom to avenge death of militant

After Israeli commandos killed a senior Hamas militant in the West Bank on Thursday, Hamas' military wing spokesman said that "fighters in the West Bank have total freedom to retaliate for this heinous crime."

Abu Obeida, the spokesman of the Iz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, said that the Hamas military wing was considering its options in regard to retaliation within the West Bank, asserting that "the blood of the dead will not have spilled for nothing."

"Any target on Palestinian soil is a legitimate one," he said, having also accused the Palestinian Authority in contributing to the killing, according to channel 10 news.

"The home of the shahid was under the surveillance of the Palestinian Authority's security apparatus, and this proves a traitorous cooperation with the occupation. This security apparatus allows the occupation to do as it wants in the West Bank, and to pursue fighters," channel 10 quoted Abu Obeida as saying.

He stressed the fact that the Hamas fighters were given complete freedom to retaliate at any time or place they deemed appropriate, stressing that Israeli attempts to harm the organization will not diminish their will power one iota.

Abed al-Majid Dudin, 45, who was killed earlier Thursday, was the head of the Palestinian Islamist group's armed wing in the area around the West Bank city of Hebron.

The Israeli troops, from a joint contingent of Israel Defense Forces and Israel Police special forces, found Dudin in a village southeast of Hebron. They surrounded a house in which he had barricaded himself and called on him to come out.

Dudin opened fire on the troops, after which they shot and killed him. The soldiers also arrested one of the militant's subordinates, Ahmad a-Fatah Hasin, a 45-year-old Hamas operative.

He barricaded himself in his home, according to the Palestinian report, and was later killed after engaging in a brief gunfight with the troops.

None of the soldiers was hurt in the incident.

Dudin was believed to have been one of the planners of a 1995 bus bombing in Jerusalem, in which four people were killed, and a bus bombing in Ramat Gan in the same year, in which six people were killed.

Dudin spent a number of years in a Palestinian jail in Jericho, but was later released after the outbreak of the second intifada in 2000.

Brig. Gen. Noam Tivon, commander of the IDF forces in the West Bank, praised the successful joint operation.

"We will reach every terrorist who killed Israeli citizens. We will continue to fight terror and defend the citizens of Israel," Tivon said.